K.T Simpson
Nicolas Cage is in talks to play Nicolas Cage in meta-drama “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”, with Lionsgate in final negotiations to pick up the film.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” has a script by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, with Gormican attached to direct.
Cage is in talks to play himself in the film – the character is desperate to get a role in a new Tarantino movie while also dealing with a strained relationship with his teenage daughter. He also occasionally talks to an egotistical 1990s version of himself who rides him for making too many crappy movies and for not being a star anymore.
The Cage character is also under a mountain of debt and finds himself forced to make an appearance at the birthday party of a Mexican billionaire who happens to be a fan of Cage’s work and secretly hopes to show him a script on which he’s been working.
While he bonds with the man, Cage is informed by the CIA that the billionaire is actually a drug cartel kingpin who has kidnapped the daughter of a Mexican presidential nominee and is recruited by the U.S. government to get intelligence. The situation spirals even more dramatically when the Mexican brings over Cage’s daughter and his ex-wife for a reconciliation, and when their lives are on the line, Cage takes on the role of a lifetime.
The meta-project will also have references to Cage’s real life works, such as “Leaving Las Vegas”, “Face-Off” and “Gone in 60 Seconds”.
